The slider selector switch of the invention is of the same general type as is described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,646 which was filed in the name of Arthur T. Martinez and which is assigned to the present assignee.
Like the selector switch assembly described in the Martinez patent, the selector switch assembly of the present invention finds particular utility in complex electrical and electronic systems, such as in telephone answering machines, in which a 1arge number of switching contacts are to be operated as the switch is moved from one position to another, and in which it is imperative that only one set of contacts be operated at any one time.
The selector switch assembly of the invention is ideal for such uses since it is even more economical in its construction than the selector switch assembly described in the Martinez patent, since it is even easier to operate than the switch assembly described in the patent; since it requires a minimum of space; and since, like the switch assembly described in the Martinez patent, it is inherently mechanically interlocked because the plunger is capable of actuating only one of the pushbutton switches at any one time as it is moved from one position to the next on successive pairs of the transverse members.